The copyright holder of the New International Version of the Bible says that it will phase out the controversial gender-inclusive Today’s New Inter national Version translation once a panel of evangelical scholars completes work on a thoroughly reviewed and updated version of the NIV in 2011.

Recently I browsed the front end of the religion section in my neighborhood bookstore, and I found dozens of Bibles: teen Bibles, “practical” Bibles, a travel Bible, a “businessman’s” Bible, Bibles narrated by great actors and captured on CD.

Sometimes funny, frequently irreverent and consistently thoughtful, Debbie Blue, a founding pastor of the House of Mercy in St. Paul, Minnesota, presents a solid introduction to a method of reading scripture that invites ongoing investigation of basic theological concepts and questions.

Many Christians like to think that they take the Bible as it stands, but in reality they take the Bible as they understand it. What we get out of the Bible often has as much to do with what we bring to the text as with the text itself. Differing biblical interpretations often arise from the different theological grids that are imposed on scripture.

"The man who delivers my groceries wants a Bible,” my mother said, “but he doesn’t know which one. What shall I tell him?” I should have had a ready answer for her, but I did not. It was a big question, after all. If she had asked me to recommend a life partner for her deliveryman, I could not have taken the matter more to heart. Say you have one shot at putting a Bible in someone’s hands.

When asked about the Bible course at the local public high school, a West Texas minister told the Abilene Reporter News, “My hope is the end result is they read their Bible and start asking questions elsewhere and they become Christians. That’s the hope of the community, too.”